


Tree of Life

by ladysparkles



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Charles Being Concerned, Erik is a Sweetheart, Jewish Holidays, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 00:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5269574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysparkles/pseuds/ladysparkles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since Erik goes along with helping Charles celebrate Christmas, Charles goes out of his way to celebrate the next Jewish holiday with Erik.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tree of Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Black_Betty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Betty/gifts).



> Fill for the prompt "Charles tries to plan something special for Erik on a Jewish holiday (can be Chanukah or can be a different holiday/festival?) and fails spectacularly."
> 
> Also note that this is intended to be a comedy inspired by some of my own Jewish holiday experiences (I can relate to Erik)

Just before Christmas, Charles was struck by a realization. Never before had they celebrated a holiday for Erik’s benefit. This year, Charles had gotten preoccupied with the school and wasn’t able to plan for Christmas like he used to, so Erik picked up the slack. Erik didn’t complain once, he simply tried to follow everything that Charles usually did.

 

In bed Erik was staring at the ceiling, silently.

“Is something wrong?” Charles asked.

“No, not at all.” Erik answered. “You probably want more of that peppermint tea that you drink around this time, right?”

“You don’t have to. That’s just something I do, it’s not a tradition or anything. I just get it when I see it in the store.”

“Would you like it?”

“Sure.”

“And how about your present?” Erik asked.

“You don’t have to get me anything.” Charles said.

“But since I’m going to get you something, what would you like?”

“Anything you get me would be fine.” Charles said with a laugh. “I don’t care.”

“Alright, then you’re at the mercy of my will.” Erik joked as he rubbed his hands down Charles’ sides.

“Wait.” Charles said.

Erik pulled his hands away.

“No, that was fine. I just wanted to ask something.”

Erik put his hands back.

Charles laughed. “Stop. Okay, so do you want to do anything for Hanukkah this year?”

“Hanukkah’s over.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it was early this year.”

“Why didn’t we do anything?”

“You don’t celebrate Hanukkah.”

“Yeah, but you’ve been celebrating Christmas for me.”

“I’m not really celebrating Christmas. We don’t do anything religious, it’s just something that I get to do with you.”

Charles still felt like the arrangement was a little bit wrong, but he didn’t have much else to say to Erik, and Erik was far more interested in moving the night to a less conversational level.

 

It was still bothering Charles as Christmas continued to approach. He couldn’t allow himself to keep overlooking Erik’s religion. If he didn’t think of something to do to at least start making it up to Erik, he would feel terrible and guilty all Christmas. He had missed the opportunity for Hanukkah this year, so Charles set his sights on the next holiday: Tu B’Shevat, the new year of trees. Charles had no idea that trees were such a big deal. Maybe that was why Erik was so environmentally friendly.

 

Charles did his research on the holiday as well as he could without spoiling the surprise to Erik. The most important thing that he had to procure were the fruits for the dinner—or as Charles had recently learned, seder—plate, which meant getting to the grocery store and back and stashing the fruit somewhere that Erik wouldn’t suspect. Not particularly easily said, but definitely easier said than done. Charles added a few decorations in the form of cutouts of trees to the house. They weren’t an explicit part of the custom, but he thought they added a fun emphasis on the day.

 

When Charles felt Erik’s mind approaching the door, he reached out to him quickly. _There’s a surprise for you_. He felt Erik’s mild apprehension in response.

 

“What the hell is this?” Erik asked when he walked in the door and saw the decorations.

“Happy Tu B’Shevat!”

“…okay?”

“You’re not happy.”

“I’m just confused.”

“I thought we should celebrate one of your holidays.”

“That’s very sweet. But it’s not your fault that I don’t celebrate anything. I just don’t want to.”

“Why not? Did I…”

“This is a holiday for trees. I’m thirty. I spent about twenty years celebrating all these holidays. They just aren’t worth celebrating anymore. The oil lasted eight days, we made it out of Egypt, and I’m sorry for being a terrible person 364 days of the year but God will forgive me.”

Charles stepped back and dropped to the chair. “I am so sorry. I never meant to offend you, I just thought that you might have wanted this.”

“I didn’t, but no harm done. Sorry that you put yourself through the trouble.”

“We don’t need to do the whole seder.” Charles said. “But we have plenty of fruit now if you’d like any. Also wine. There’s a lot of wine.”

Erik laughed and looked around the table. Charles really had gone through a lot of work to set it all up.

“There’s also a tree being planted in Israel in your honor, but I don’t think I can return that gift.”

Erik smiled. He picked up the printed out seder booklet. “You prepared all of this?”

“I actually just printed it out from the internet.”

“And you bought all the right food.”

“We needed to have the single seed and many seed fruits.” Charles half-joked.

“This was really sweet.”

“I really thought that it would be nice if you got the chance to celebrate something like you used to.”

“I never did anything like this.”

“I’m sorry.” Charles said. He felt awful that he didn’t ask Erik what he wanted first before he barreled ahead with his idea. “It was inconsiderate of me.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Erik grabbed Charles’ hands in his own. “This way more thoughtful than I deserve. I shut all this stuff out because it was easier to do that than to acknowledge that everybody that I used to do this with is gone.”

“I’m—“

“Shh.” Erik said. “This looks really fun. I’m sorry for being so abrupt. Do you still want to have the dinner? I’d like to give it a try.”

Charles smiled. “So you _do_ like it?”

“I love it.”

 

After the fourth glass of wine, Charles was getting pretty giggly and flushed. He almost couldn’t tell how deeply Erik was looking at him.

“I feel like you are trying to get yourself drunk.” Erik observed.

“It’s not my fault there are so many drinks involved with this. Are you having fun?”

“I am.” Erik said. “Now we have a new tradition.”

Charles slid his chair closer to Erik’s and kissed him. “Yay trees.”


End file.
